Social venture Cacao for Change has written to Barack Obama and Ban Ki Moon calling for cocoa prices to triple.

Cacao for Change, a sub-branch of Cafē for Change, hopes the US president and the United Nations secretary general will lend their support for the organization’s WeShare system and ‘10CentsPerCup’ campaign.

WeShare system

Under the proposal, retailers would charge consumers $0.10 more for every ‘cup’ of coffee, tea or chocolate. This money would be collected by WeShare – a platform of member companies, administered by an independent board with an audit system.

WeShare would then distribute funds to farmers through farmer associations and cooperatives.

‘Poverty light’?

Cacao for Change founder Fernando Morales-de la Cruz said in his letter
to the UN secretary general that less than $0.01 per cup of chocolate, tea and coffee helps to reduce poverty in rural regions that produce the commodities.

Cafe for Change and its sub-movement Cacao for Change have launched social campaign ‘10CentsPerCup’ and is targeting world leaders such as Barack Obama. Photo: Cafe for Change.

He alleged fair trade premiums were “insignificant and unacceptable” and perpetuate “a cruel form of poverty-light”.

He told ConfectioneryNews: “If you pay below or at the market price, you keep people in poverty… Not even 1% of cocoa consumed provides a living wage and the means to end poverty.

“We know the price should double at least to pay a living wage.”

Higher premiums paid for by consumers

Departing Fairtrade CEO
Harriet Lamb and Mars’ head of cocoa procurement
and World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) chairman Barry Parkin have previously said cocoa farmer income may need to double or even quadruple for the sector to be sustainable.

“Tripling the income of farmers is a beautiful thing to say, but you are not taking them out of poverty,” Morales-de la Cruz told this site.

Certified cocoa through organizations such as UTZ Certified, Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance is typically sold at a premium of around $150-$200 per metric ton on top of the market price.

Cacao for Change says the premium should be 30 times higher ($4,500-$6,000), tripling the current market price in the London and New York future markets.

Under WeShare, the premium would not be paid directly by traders or manufacturers.

Instead, WeShare would distribute funds to cooperatives and farmer associations after collecting the money from retailers, which charge $0.10 more per cup.

“This is not charity,” said Morales-de la Cruz. “This is compensation.”

Traceability and disorganized farmers

The Cacao for Change founder said sophisticated systems now exist to trace a manufacturers’ cocoa supply, so individual farmers could benefit from premiums collected at retail level.

Industry estimates suggest around 70% of cocoa farmers are not part of a cooperative or association.

Morales-de la Cruz said if these ‘disorganized’ farmers knew there were premiums payments to be earned, they would have an incentive to form credible cooperatives or associations that can administer the payments.

Would consumers pay?

He argued consumers would be willing to pay the $0.10 extra and dismissed suggestions it could lead to reduced consumption, harming cocoa demand for farmers.

“10 cents in Europe is insignificant for a consumer if that means paying the true cost of production. The good will and facts are more important than advertising,” he said.

He added that retailers will accept price hikes if they know the facts.

Small-scale start

Morales-de la Cruz said he had already invited the major companies to join the WeShare platform, but he expects it will begin on a small scale with smaller chocolate, coffee and tea manufacturers.

“The change will come from independent people that don’t want to be part of exploitative business models of buying low and selling high.”

He said he wrote to Obama and Ban Ki Moon in the hope they would encourage companies to join the voluntary WeShare platform.

“Our platform will be so small at the beginning, but it will be scalable,” he said.

The social entrepreneur said farmers could use the premium to pay for children’s education, reduce reliance on child laborers and invest in their farms to improve productivity and quality

“Imagine how much food companies could sell to farmers if they had money,” he said. “But they are starving.”

According to the World Cocoa Foundation, a typical cocoa farm in Africa is two to four hectares and normally yields between 300-400 kg of cocoa beans per hectare each year.

At yesterday’s cocoa prices on the New York Futures market - $2,948.67 per metric ton (MT) – that means a typical African cocoa farmer’s annual yield from cocoa is worth between $1,769 and $4,718 per year.

Morales-de la Cruz previously said cocoa is sometimes the only source of income for a farmer as they don’t own enough land to cultivate other crops.

But far less than $1,769 and $4,718 per year will reach an African cocoa farmer’s pocket because the commodity is taxed and traders will take their cut. The figure also excludes the cost of labor, transportation, fertilizer and planting materials.

Whatever is left can be spent on food and basic living costs, such as education for children. This can add up as the world’s premier cocoa growing nation, Côte D’Ivoire, has a fertility rate of five children per woman.

Make Chocolate Fair estimates many farmers in the Global South survive on less than $1.25 a day, below the threshold of absolute poverty.

By comparison, the poverty threshold for a five-person household in the US is $27,827 a year, according to the US Census Bureau.

Chocolate and cocoa industry programs as well as certification organizations such as UTZ Certified, Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance typically offer a $150-200 premium on top of the market price for cocoa. Even with a premium of $200 per MT that’s still $5,198 a year before tax and other expenses for an African cocoa farmer with four hectares yielding 400 g a hectare.

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2 comments(Comments are now closed)

Fairtrade’s goals remain focused on the eradication of poverty, of unsustainable and unfair trading practices that keep people poor

Fairtrade supports 129 cocoa producer organizations representing 179,800 farmers in 20 countries including Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana and the Dominican Republic. Most are small-scale farmers who live on very low incomes and Fairtrade enables them to choose their own path to development through an approach based on empowerment.
Fairtrade empowers farmers, workers and consumers to make trade fairer, but we also know there are no quick-fix solutions to tackling inequality, creating opportunity and ending exploitation. We are not naive about the challenges we face: many of the problems faced by farmers and workers are deeply ingrained after generations - sometimes centuries - of marginalization and exploitation. Nowhere is this more true than in the cocoa supply chain.

We welcome robust discussions with our fellow certification labels, industry experts, cocoa producers and consumers, as we believe they are valuable occasions to learn from one another. While we take this opportunity to reflect on our work in these areas, we encourage others to do the same, particularly businesses yet to engage with ethical and sustainable certification. The reality is that many cocoa farmers around the world live and work in unacceptable conditions – we need widespread industry change and the support of everyone to positively shape the lives of millions.
The Fairtrade Premium is earned on top of the price farmers earn for their beans, is paid directly to the producer group (rather than to a middleman) and is fixed at a minimum level (rather than being negotiable – although of course businesses can pay more if they wish). It can be invested as the farmer-owned co-operative democratically chooses, in projects that will benefit their business or community. €10.8 million in Fairtrade Premium were paid to cocoa producers in 2013-14.
Producers are encouraged to spend at least 25% of their Fairtrade Premium on increasing their productivity, but in some cases they spend more than this – a recent report on Fairtrade cocoa farmers in West Africa found that they chose to invest 36% of their Fairtrade Premiums to increase their productivity and quality of their cocoa.
Importantly, the Fairtrade Premium is also used for social projects, such as rebuilding schools, building wells for drinking water, and supporting diversification in order to increase income.
The Fairtrade movement is the only certification scheme to be 50% owned by producers, while the FAIRTRADE Mark independently certifies that products meet economic, social and environmental standards.
Fairtrade prices and standards are available to view at www.fairtrade.net/standards.html and are regularly reviewed with input from all stakeholders, especially farmers.
Fairtrade certified producer organizations and traders are committed to preventing and effectively eliminating all forms of Forced Labour, Child Labour and human trafficking, in accordance with the principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). This commitment is enshrined in the Fairtrade Standards for Small Producer Organizations, Hired Labour and Contract Production, and Trader Standards.
Fairtrade has worked with independent workers' rights experts to adopt a participatory methodology for benchmarking living wages that is more comprehensive and progressive than those adopted by mainstream industry players, and helped establish a coalition to drive that forward.
Fairtrade’s goals remain focused on the eradication of poverty, of unsustainable and unfair trading practices that keep people poor, and prevent children from all the opportunities of a healthy life, a decent education and a prosperous future, are absolutely at the heart of our motivation and our Theory of Change. We welcome attention to low incomes amongst cocoa farmers and encourage all stakeholders to work together to find sector-wide solution

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Posted by Kate Lewis15 August 2016 | 15h152016-08-15T15:15:41Z

cote d'ivoire

aloha from hawaii.
I think you should include in the "red" section in your article that the women who have 5 children enslave them to the cacao farms. Watch, "the dark side of chocolate" on youtube. Please mention it because thats what happens at .01 cents a cup...